


Haunted by you

by Bluemoondreams



Category: Trolls (2016)
Genre: Angst, Drama, Drama & Romance, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Haunting, M/M, Romance, ghost - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-22 21:32:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12491312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluemoondreams/pseuds/Bluemoondreams
Summary: This is for Halloween. Creek as part of his duties as the spiritual troll of the tribe deals with ghostly problems, but there is one ghost the grey ghost who intrigues him.





	1. Chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I would try to write something for Halloween and this idea developed I hope you will all enjoy it, but fair warning this may get a little strange! Warnings of fluff, angst, and two males in love eventually. I don’t own these characters, I do have dyslexia so be kind about my spelling or grammar mistakes.

Haunted by you.

Chapter one:

Creek had always had spiritual skills, just like many of his ancestors before him the guru could see and talk to ghosts, and it was these abilities caused their family to be referred to by all the other trolls as ghost healers. The purple troll used his gifts to help ghost trolls to pass on into the afterlife, Creek had to admit that h loved helping ghosts to find peace, there were however some ghosts which he could not help, some were dark and had to be banished, but didn’t want to go as they were protective and wanted to stay to help the living. All of the troll ghosts came to know the purple troll, those who meant no harm came to like him and those who were darker came to fear him.

There was one ghost however who Creek longed to meet, this was the grey ghost, the other good spirits spoke well of him, according to them he was a very old ghost, none of the good spirits knew anything of his story or the grey ghosts real name, but they told Creek he was very kind and very sad at the same time. The spiritual troll had to wonder exactly how old this ghost was? What was his name? What was his story? Why had he never moved on? What was keeping him hear? Creek decided he might find some answers to these questions in the archive of the troll tree, so the guru went to the archives to see what information he could locate on the grey ghost.

Creek eventually found reports in the archives about the grey ghost, he was amazed to see how many there were, the purple troll soon discovered that he tended to appear on the anniversary of his death, his birthday and when a troll truly needed him or to warn them that something bad was going to happen to that troll or their family. There were however also odd reports of this ghost appearing standing at the base of the troll tree as a warning to the trolls that an enemy of the trolls was coming to the troll tree and of him just roaming the troll tree as though he was looking for something. These reports went back for many years, eventually Creek came to the first report it was over a hundred years old and very fragile, it spoke of the ghost of a grey troll standing by a recently erected tomb, whose tomb this was the report didn’t say, but Creek carefully wrote down all of the details of it, he hoped that maybe this was his tomb or that of some troll the grey ghost had been close to.

The spiritual troll carefully put the reports away, he made his way to the troll graveyard, he searched all through it for the tomb, but he couldn’t find anything like it. Creek frowned with confusion, trolls were very superstitious about tombs, they were never knocked one down and they were tended to by the whole tribe so they stayed intact, so he knew that it had to be here somewhere. The guru went to look for the grave yard keeper, he knew if any troll knew were this tomb was it would be old Sage, he eventually found the old grey green skinned and white and blue haired troll tending to one of the graves. “Hello Sage!”

The old troll looked up from his work, when he realised it was Creek calling him, he waved to the spiritual troll, leant on his shovel and call back cheerfully. “Hello Creek! How can I help you today?”

“I’ve come to talk to you about a ghost.” The guru told him with a warm smile.

The older troll shook his head at the younger and asked him. “Now why doesn’t that surprise me? Which ghost are you trying to help this time?”

Creek answered this question by saying to the grave yard keeper. “The grey ghost…I found a very old report about him standing near to a tomb I’m hoping it might be his one, but I can’t find it anywhere I was hoping you might know where to find it.”

“The grey ghost, well my! Alright I like a good mystery, tell me what this tomb looks like and I’ll see if I can help you.” Sage said with a smile for him.

The purple drew out the description he had written down, he read it out to the old troll, who listened in silence and when Creek had reached the end Sage gave a nod and then said. “Yes, I think I know which one you are talking about it is very old. I’ll show you were it is.” The grey green troll led him through the graveyard, he took the guru to the west corner of the grave yard, there under the shade of an old yew tree was a grey marble tomb, it was simple but beautiful as far as Creek was concerned.

“Wow I’ve never seen one like this…” The purple troll confessed to Sage.

“I’m not too surprised, as far as I know it is the only one in this style in the whole graveyard. The keeper before me introduced me to the tradition of laying on this tomb at every full moon, a branch of a weeping willow, a yellow tulip and a white lily…No troll really remembers why this is done any more, but we keep going it.” Sage explained to the younger troll.

Creek gave him an understanding nod, he walked closer to the tomb, suddenly the spiritual troll could smell the scent of mixture of herbs he couldn’t quiet identify, but which relaxed him. Creek had a feeling that this smell was the sign of a ghost nearby and though he couldn’t see the grey ghost, the guru could sense his very powerful presence, it wasn’t threatening in anyway, but it was watching him closely. The purple troll looked the tomb over, he could see old troll runes around the edge of the lid, Creek knew that not many trolls could read them now and so he read them out to himself and Sage. “Here rests Branch Silver-song, the grey troll, taken to young by envy and greed, cursed to be living yet not living, by Creek Wisper-wind.”

“That sounds bad.” The old grey green troll said softly to the younger troll.

The guru gave a nod of agreement to the other male troll. “It is bad that’s why curses are against troll law…But all curses are built with a cure…Which would have been recorded somewhere on the tomb.” After he said this Creek looked the tomb over for more writing and then he noticed and area at what he felt was the head end of the tomb which had been chiselled away, the purple troll shook his head, he felt very sad for this troll, grey ghost or not, he had suffered a horrible fate. “I think the cure used to be written here, some troll defied troll law by removing the writing, it is very clear that some troll didn’t want him to be free probably Creek Wisper-wind…At least I have names I can look into now and hopefully this grey troll is the grey ghost. Thank you for your help Sage.”

The old troll smiled at him he felt very grateful for the help of the other troll. “Your welcome. I hope this helps you with aiding the grey ghost, he has been around for a very long time now.”

The purple troll returned his smile before leaving the side of Sage, as he walked away from the old troll back towards the archives to start looking for information on these two trolls the guru couldn’t help but feel a lot of concern for the grey ghost. Cursing a troll was a crime in troll law, so he knew that this troll had been wronged twice now, some troll had wanted Branch to suffer and to never be free of his curse. That was a lot of hate for one troll to have for another and it made him wonder what this troll could have possibly have done to deserve such treatment from another troll.

When Creek reached the archive, he instantly started to look for information on Branch Silver-song and Creek Whisper-wind, eventually the spiritual troll found some very old court papers, they told him that Creek was being accused of cursing Branch by an older troll named miss Guffin, she said he had done so out of petty jealousy because the spiritual powers of Branch were stronger than his and was gaining the attention of other trolls something which Creek hated. Creek denied these charges from the older troll, he said he loved Branch and he would never hurt him, but there was one huge problem with this defence which was that he ether couldn’t or wouldn’t tell any other troll the cure to the curse which held Branch. Creek stopped reading as he realised that the report had referred to Branch as now grey, quickly the purple troll wrote down some notes onto his note pad which said. ‘Now grey…Is this part of the curse? If so what colours was Branch before this? Who was miss Guffin?’ Once this was written down Creek returned to the court reports, it seemed to him that the words of this older troll miss Guffin carried a lot of power in the tribe at this time and the purple troll decided he would see if he could find out some more about her. Eventually the accused Creek was found guilty of cursing Branch, the guru was unsurprised to find he was put into jail for the rest of his life, he never told any troll the cure to the curse and it left Creek with a puzzle, if he were in jail then who took the other words off of the tomb of Branch?

Frowning the purple troll started to look for a report into the tomb being desecrated, he felt sure that there would have to be one somewhere here. Eventually he discovered the report, it was a year after Creek had been sent to jail, the tomb had been defaced, but no troll was ever accused of the crime, it was here in this report that the missing words from the tomb were written down and the guru read them out to himself. “Tears of love, words of love, thoughts of love and demonstration of love true will free you.” By the time he had reached the end of these words the eyes of the purple troll were wide, it was a powerful cure, but if Creek had never told any of the other trolls the cure to the curse then who did? Feeling even more confused than before the guru wrote the words of the curses cure down, next to which he put, ‘which troll discovered the cure to the curse on Branch? Is this the real cure? If not how can I find out what the real cure is?’

There were so many questions which Creek had about what happened all that time ago, he put the court records to one side, he felt that the only one who might have answers was the grey ghost himself and the guru knew how hard it would be to gain any information from him. Before he gave up however the spiritual did a few more searches and found a news report of the time, in one there was a picture of the other Creek, he realised that he looked just like him, then there was miss Guffin, she was a sweat elderly looking troll with her hair in a bun and old fashioned glasses, then there was a picture of Branch, the eyes of the purple troll widened, he was a handsome troll alright and dressed in fine high class clothing, which led the guru to wonder if maybe there might be a coloured portrait of Branch Silver-song some were. This thought made Creek go over of the register of arts, he started looking through the portraits, the purple troll knew that it might be possible that if all of Branch’s close family was gone then any art they owned would have been put into storage and kept as part of troll cultural heritage. Eventually the purple troll found what he was looking for he was surprised to find there were several paintings registered under their name. Creek took the cards, he made his way to Harper the keeper of the art archive, he handed the card over to her and said. “Can I see these painting?”

Harper looked at the card and then gave Creek a nod. “Sure, helping another ghost Creek?” She asked curiously as they made their way to the correct part of the archive.

“Yep, though there is a bit of a mystery to this one and I’m hoping the paintings might help me understand things a little better.” The purple troll told her honestly as they walked along together.

The light blue skinned troll smiled at him and gave a nod. “Well they do say a picture is worth a thousand words, so hopefully these will help you with your problem.” Harper opened up the section these paints were being stored in, the first painting she drew out was of a female and male troll dressed in fine old fashioned clothing sitting on the grass under the troll tree with a blue baby troll on the mother’s knee. “Nothing usual about this one for a high class family, it would commemorate the babies birth.” Harper said to Creek as she pushed this one away again, then pulled out the next which was a painting of the troll tree, a few of different views came next, then at last Harper pulled out a painting of the same troll couple in the first picture, but now standing with them was a teal blue skinned, royal blue haired troll and Harper said softly. “That must be their son when he had grown up…It says on the back here, this is a family portrait of Lady Shimmer Silver-song, Lord Leaf Silver-song and young Lord Branch Silver-song.”

“So this was Branch and he was one of the troll lords.” Creek said softly, he knelt down and looked closely at the other troll. “He was very handsome…It’s so sad to think what happened to him…And when he was so young too.”

“So he is the one you are helping…Hm, I’ve seen him before…Wait…!” Harper said as inspiration struck, she quickly put this painting away, the light blue closed up the section, then took Creek to one end of the gallery and pointed up.

The guru followed her pointing finger and gasped, it was a large full portrait of Branch, he was standing leaning back against a balustrade a view from the troll tree was clear behind him, the purple troll took the time to take this view in and then turned his attention back to Branch. He was dressed finely, in a deep green leaf vest simply decorated in a lighter green leaf pattern, and long brown trousers which reached his ankles, this troll really was very handsome and Creek couldn’t help but feel if he were alive today he would turn a lot of heads. The blue troll in the painting looked totally relaxed, was smiling mysteriously out of the picture at the viewer and holding out one had to him as though he were wanting share a secret of some kind. Creek knew that this age of painting could often have a hidden message or symbols in it, so he turned to Harper and then asked her. “Is there a book about this painting, or a picture of it so I can study it?”

“No books, no troll has ever really studied this picture, which I think is a shame it’s a very old and very fine painting. I do have a poster of this painting if you would like to have one.” The light blue troll told him.

“That would be perfect! Thank you Harper!” The guru told her with a grateful smile.

She smiled back happy to help him with his quest, the artistic troll got out the poster, she handed it over to Creek and then said to him. “I hope this helps you in aiding his ghost.”

“Thank you.” The purple troll took the poster, he left the archive, heading back to his pod intending to study this painting and see what it could tell him about this troll and if it would be of some help to him in freeing or helping the grey ghost in some way.


	2. Chapter two

Chapter two:

Creek made his way back to his pod, once inside he took the poster over to his table, before fetching a book on symbolism from the nearby the bookcase to help him anything he might find in the painting. The purple troll sat down at the table, he went to unroll the poster, but before Creek could do this his mind went back to the graveyard and Sage mentioning to him that the grave keepers placed lily, willow and yellow tulips onto Branch’s tombs every full moon. The purple troll opened up his book and locked up what they meant, he soon discovered that willow meant being forsaken, lily was for sweetness and purity and yellow tulip for hopeless love. Creek couldn’t help but think the lily was an odd choice for a male troll, he knew that usually lilies were given to unmarried female trolls, it was clear that some troll had wanted to make a point of innocence, but was Branch the innocent one or Creek…or could it be that both of them were? The purple troll frowned he wrote this question down with the other which surrounded these two trolls from so long ago and then turned his attention back to the other two flowers being placed on the tomb. Willow meaning forsaken and the yellow tulip for hopeless love, clearly some troll had forsaken Branch and left him hopelessly in love with them, Creek wondered if this might be the reason this troll went grey and also wrote this down with all of his other questions. As this thought occurred to Creek a thrill ran through him, there was only one grey ghost after all, if Branch had gone grey then maybe he really had found the troll who was the grey ghost.

With this done Creek carefully unrolled the poster of the painting Harper had shown him, the purple troll studied it closely, the first thing which he noticed was that around Branch’s neck was a silver chain from which hung a celtic tree of life knot. The guru wasn’t quite sure what this meant, so he opened the book on symbols to trees, there was an entry there for the tree of life, so Creek read this entry to himself. “The tree of life is a symbol of all life, if it is shown in the form of a celtic knot then it symbolises eternal life. This particular symbol was used by the Silver-song family as the family’s symbol, but when he last heir of that line died in tragic circumstances the symbol was never used by the trolls again out of respect to this family.” Quickly Creek wrote this information down and then turned his attention back to the poster.

He notices that around the wrist of the hand which Branch is holding out towards the viewer of the painting is a simple twist chain bracelet, as Creek wore one himself so he knew this was a sign of a troll with spiritual abilities. The purple troll moved his gaze from this to the table standing by the side of the blue troll, on it was a bunch of white and red roses, Creek knew that red roses were for love, and white roses were for purity, he also knew that the two together like this meant true love. As the purple troll looked closer at the bunch of flowers he could see that there was a red ribbon around the roses again a symbol of love and on that ribbon was a simple gold wedding ring. Seeing this confused Creek a great deal, the guru started to go through the book, he stopped at the entry for rings, the spiritual troll read the entry until he came to the part which spoke about wedding rings. “When the wedding ring is tied around the bunch of flowers it means the wedding is imminent.” Quickly the purple troll wrote down on his pad that Branch had been due to marry soon and knowing this made Creek look at the left hand of the troll in the painting and sure enough around his middle finger is a simple gold betrothal ring centred with an oval amethyst. The purple troll couldn’t help but wonder if this troll had been betrothed to Creek Whisper-wind, because if he was it made what happened to this troll even sadder than before.

Creek sat back in his chair, he sighed deeply, the purple troll discovered that now he knew what he did about Branch it made him really want to discover if he really was the grey ghost and if he was then Creek wanted to try to help him in some way. “Are you the grey ghost?” The guru asked the poster of the painting in front of him, a few moments after he asked that question Creek smelt the same herbal scent from the graveyard once more. Smelling this sent, made the spiritual troll quickly look around the room to see if any troll was there, but sure enough there was no troll there. At the same time though Creek could feel a presence, one which felt just like the one from the grave yard, so he closed his eyes and asked in a calm voice. “I know you are there why don’t you come out?” There was nothing but silence in answer to his question, the purple troll sighed in disappointment, he opened his eyes then the guru jumped with fright and gasped at the same time, as floating right in front of him was a grey troll ghost, and it was quiet clearly the troll from the painting. “Are you Branch Silver-song?” Creek found himself asking the other troll even though he was fairly sure that he knew the answer to this question already.

“I am…Though it’s been a long time since any troll called me by my name, most trolls call me the grey ghost now…Why are you looking at my past?” The grey ghost asked him curiously.  
“The other ghosts spoke well of you, they said you were very old and I wanted to know about you to see if I could help you in some way.” Creek told Branch with honesty as he looked him over.  
The grey ghost gave him a sad look, he shook his head and then said to him softly. “Help me? I don’t think that’s possible young one, I’ve been stuck like this for a very long time now.”  
“Looking at the records I’d say you’ve been a ghost for over two hundred years…You were cursed before you died, right?” Creek asked wanting to see what the ghost could tell him about his situation.

The straightforward questioning of this troll startled the ghost a little, he raised both eyebrows at him before answering the question. “Yes, I was cursed before I died, I don’t remember the exact words of the curse, but I manged to deduce that the curse is the reason I am a ghost and I think that I probably always will be…”

“All the tomb said, was that you were cursed to be living yet not living…How are you a ghost then? It doesn’t make sense any of it.” Creek said with aggravation to the other troll.

The grey troll was quiet for a few moments, he thought for a few moments and then said to the purple troll. “Those words aren’t the exact ones of the curse, all I remember it that the curse made me appear to be dead so I was buried, but I wasn’t dead which left me trapped as a ghost.”  
“So wait…The curse made you look dead, but you weren’t, but that would mean that your body is still in the tomb unchanged…Wouldn’t it?” Creek found himself asking the ghost as gently as he possibly could aware of the fact that it was possible that talking about what happened to him might make the grey ghost even more upset than before.

“I don’t know if my body has changed or not, I can’t get into my tomb so that I can get to my body…That seems to also part of the curse…I have grown used to it over the years.” Branch told the other troll his voice full of sadness as he told the younger troll this. “So you know my name, may I know yours?”

The purple troll had to admit he was a little nervous about telling the other troll his name in case the Creek from the records had been the one to curse him, but he decided it was best to tell Branch his name right from the beginning. “I am Creek…”

“Oh…You have his name…” As Branch said this, the purple troll watched with amazement as a spectral tear made its way down his face.

The guru had never seen a ghost cry before now, he watched it drop away from the end of Branch’s chin, Creek reached forward to catch it because he knew it would become a ghost tear, which was a tear shaped crystal and something which was very magically powerful. The purple troll caught the tear it glowed in the palm of his hand, Creek had never felt a ghost tear with such power before now and he had seen others. The guru brought his gaze up to meet that of the grey ghost, as he did so Creek realised that this ghost had the most vivid teal blue eyes he had ever seen in his life. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you cry…Here this is yours.” As he said this the guru held the ghosts tear out to him.

“It is alright you should keep that tear, it will keep you safe from harm and it if you need me at all Creek all you need to do is touch the tear and I will come to you.” After he said this the grey troll was quiet for a few moments and then the grey troll spoke to Creek once more. “I know you didn’t mean to make me cry, it’s just…It had been so long since I had heard his name… It took me by surprise.” Branch’s sadness at this time was clear and so strong that Creek could practically feel it radiating from the other troll.

The purple troll felt compassion for this troll stirring inside him for all the pain which this troll had suffered. “You really loved Creek didn’t you?”

Branch gave him a nod and then answered the other troll’s question. “Yes…We were supposed to be married before…Well this happened to me…I never got to see him again…I think that has been the worst part of all of this for me…I never knew what happened to him, I mean I know he is dead by now, but that’s all.”

“The records say that according to a miss Guffin Creek was the one to curse you…But you clearly still love him…Do you know if he really cursed you to be like this?” The spiritual troll asked him wanting to see if the other troll could help him understand what had happened to him.  
Branch shook his head and then said very sadly. “No I don’t know if Creek cursed me, but I don’t believe that he did so…”

The purple troll believed these words as the ghost said him and then he said to Branch. “The reports say that it was a miss Guffin who accused him of doing this to you.”

“Miss Guffin…She accused my Creek…I can’t understand why she would do that…” Branch said with confusion.

“Branch…Creek went to prison for the rest of his life for cursing you.” The guru told the ghost as gently as possible.

The grey ghost looked at him with deep sadness and then said to Creek. “That’s terrible…I refuse to believe that Creek did that to me. Is it possible for you to help me find out more about what happened to my Creek, maybe even where he is buried…? I know he didn’t become a ghost like me, but I would still like to know where he is…If that makes sense.”

The purple troll gave him a smile and a nod as he said. “I would be glad to help you find out more about what happened to the one you loved.”

“Thank you so much.” Branch said gratefully.

“Will you mind if it waits until the morning, it is getting late and I need to rest.”

The grey ghost gave the other troll an understanding nod and then said to him. “I have waited this long young one. I can wait a little longer.”

“Thank you.” After Creek said this the grey ghost vanished from sight.

After the purple troll got settled in bed, he lay back against the pillows thinking about the other troll, he was handsome, king and very sad. Creek found himself wishing that he could help the ghost, at the same time the guru also hoped that he would find out that the other Creek hadn’t been the one to harm Branch and if he was not the spiritual troll could find out which troll had been the one to really curse the grey ghost to be as he was now.


	3. Chapter three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is bit slower than normal, I've been very doing a lot.

Chapter three:

When Creek woke the next day he felt a thrum of excitement go through him, the guru was looking forward to seeing if he could find something out about what had happened to the other Creek so he could in turn help Branch with the situation he was now in. Quickly he jumped out of bed, the spiritual troll got ready for the day ahead, as he did this Creek decided that before he went to the archives to look into the other Creek he would got to the shops find something to put his ghost tear onto. So it was that once he was ready for the day ahead the purple troll made his way out of his pod and then into town to find something on which to put the ghost tear from Branch onto. Creek made his way to the part of the troll tree were the shops were, he went to the craft shop, after spending some time looking around the shop and eventually spotted a cord necklace of blue, silver and purple which he felt would be perfect for the ghost tear. As soon as he saw this the eyes of the spiritual troll lit up with joy because this was perfect, he quickly picked the cord up intending to purchase it from the shop. Creek brought the this over to the owner of the shop, the male green skinned and yellow haired troll smiled at the other troll, before saying cheerfully. “Hello Creek.”

“I’ll take this please Willow.” Creek said to him handing over the cord necklace.

The other troll rung the sale up for the guru, Creek paid for it, he then slipped the ghost tear onto the cord, Willow watched this with wide eyes and asked to the spiritual troll. “Is that a ghost tear?”

“Yes it is, it was a gift from one of the ghosts.” Creek told him as he did up the cord necklace, once it was fastened up the purple troll looked down at the tear against his skin it glowed with power and looked like it was always supposed to have been there.

The shop owner smiled at him. “It looks good on you.”

“Thank you.” The purple troll said feeling truly happy because of this compliment from the other troll and due to the feeling of correctness wearing this tear brought to him. With the tear now safely on the cord around his neck Creek then left the shop, and then made his way to the archive to look into Creek Wisper-wind’s fate after he was convicted of cursing Branch. 

It didn’t take him long to find the records of this troll’s time in prison, Creek had spent seventy years in jail in total and had been buried as all troll criminals were in an unmarked grave at the edge of the troll settlement this knowledge caused the purple troll to feel very sorry for the other troll. Much to his surprise Creek discovered that during his time spent in prison this troll had become a poet, he had even been published under the name River Wind-song, a name which the purple troll quickly recognised as belonging to one of the most famous romantic troll poets in troll culture. Creek could hardly believe that a troll accused of doing something as terrible as curing another troll to spend eternity as a ghost could write such sensitive, loving and sad poetry. The file also contained a record that Creek had written a poem to Branch near his death, this poem had never been published because it was felt to be unsensitive towards the cursed troll’s family, the purple troll gently unfolded the paper the poem was written on and read the poem out to himself.

“With all my heart I am yours,  
You made my heart soar.  
I weep to know you are gone,  
I wish I didn’t wake each dawn.  
I want to lay by your side in death,  
When I breath my last breath.  
I know this will be denied to me   
I am seen as guilty as can be.  
Though harm I did you none,  
Maybe in heaven I will see you once again  
And we can be together ever more.”

By the time that the guru reached the end of the poem he was sure that he could feel the pain and sadness of the other troll, it made him feel incredibly sad for this Creek and this really did make the purple troll question if this troll did commit the crime he had been accused of by miss Guffin. Carefully the spiritual troll slipped the poem back into the folder and then carried on looking through it, when the guru reached the back of the file he noticed an old library reference card, Creek carefully lifted it out and looked at it with confusion, he had to wonder why this card was here in the first place, it took the purple troll a few moments to work out it was a card for a newspaper article and he hoped maybe it would tell him something more about the fate of Creek Whisper-wind.

Intrigued by this reference card the guru made his way over to the newspaper archive, he carefully looked through the records there until at last Creek found the article in question, he gently removed the newspaper out of the archive, the purple troll brought it over to his table, the guru lay the newspaper article on the table and then Creek sat down to read it. As the spiritual troll read over the article the paper had in it his eyes went wide, he could hardly believe what he was seeing on the paper before him. Though Creek had been buried in a grave which was unmarked, the next day after his burial a huge willow tree had grown there, the article stated that miss Guffin’s daughter had object to the tree marking his grave because of the crime he had been guilty of, she had even tried to have it cut down, but it soon became clear this tree couldn’t be damaged by any of the other trolls.

Creek also discovered from the article that this was the tree from which the grave keeps took their branch of willow that laid on the tomb of Branch at every full moon and as he thought about it Creek felt sure he knew which willow tree this article was referring to. The purple troll looked up from the article his eyes lost in thought, he knew from his previous reading that the willow meant forsaken, it was almost as if the first grave keeper had known something about these two trolls that no other troll did and Creek had to wonder what it is this grave keeper had known. The spiritual troll also now had an idea why Creek had not become a ghost himself, as it was clear from this one poem dedicated to Branch that he didn’t know that the grey troll had become a ghost and thus this Creek had passed away believing that he would be reunited with the one he had loved in the afterlife.

After reading all of this the purple troll knew he needed to call Branch to him to tell the ghost troll what discovered, he was worried that what he would have to tell the grey troll would hurt him, but he knew he had to tell him anyway, so Creek slowly reached up, he touched the ghost tear and whispered. “Branch please come to me…”

“You called.” Said the voice of the grey ghost from behind him.

The purple troll jumped with shock, he snapped his head around to look at Branch and said to the ghost. “Did you have to do that!”

“I’m sorry…I often forget that appearing like that scares other trolls.” The ghost said apologetically to the guru looking at him with a sheepish look.

Creek took a deep breath, he wasn’t angry with the ghost, he knew that they did sometimes forget that the living where not used to them just appearing and so he said to Branch with a small smile on his face. “It’s alright I know you didn’t mean to frighten me. I called you to me because I have been looking into what happened to the one you loved and I have news about him…He did spend the rest of his life in prison, Creek never admitted to being the one to curse you…But he became famous for his poetry under a different name and Creek wrote this for you shortly before he died.” After he said this the purple troll showed the ghost the poem.

The grey troll ghost leant over the table to read the poem, a few moments later he drew back and said softly and sadly to Creek. “He wrote this for me…Oh Creek…I still miss him…”

“I can see that and I understand it, but there is more I have to say to you.” The spiritual troll told the spirit honestly meeting the bright sad teal blue gaze of the other troll.

“More…Please tell me Creek.” Branch said to him feeling truly interested, hopeful and excited as to what the other troll might tell him about the fate of the only troll he ever loved.

“The records say that like all prisoners Creek was buried in an unmarked grave, but apparently a huge willow tree grew on his grave overnight, one which couldn’t be harmed in any way. The article also says that it is this tree from with the grave yard keepers bring a branch to your tomb on every full moon. I think I know which tree the article is talking about…Would you like to go and see it?” The guru asked the other troll gently.

Branch looked at him with wide wonder filled eyes as a warm shot of joy and hope surged through him for the first time in a long time. “I could see where Creek was buried, at last…Yes please show me!”

The purple troll was glad to see the other troll sounding so enthusiastic about something, the guru stood up, he put away all of the things he had taken out of the archives, once Creek had done this, he led the ghostly troll out of the archive, through the troll tree, to the edge of the troll settlement and to the willow tree. “This is the one.” Creek told the other troll in a soft voice gesturing at the tree.

Branch floated forwards to the willow tee, he looked up at the troll tree and for the first time since the purple troll had seen the grey ghost he smiled. The sight of this smile made Creek catch his breath, it rendered the Branch even more handsome than the guru had thought him before, which caused the heart of Creek jump in his chest and his insides fill with a warm feeling which the purple troll had never felt before. Gently the ghost lay his hand to the tree, Creek was amazed when his hand didn’t go through the tree but rested there and then Branch spoke in a soft tearful voice. “Creek…You were right this is where he was buried…I can feel what remains of his energy…Thank you young one now at long last know were Creek is.” The grey ghost said this last part very gratefully and with a measure of peace to his voice which head never been there before now.

The purple troll gave the other troll a smile, if made him feel happy to have been able to start to help this ghost find hope, joy and peace at long last. “I’m glad I could help you find were the one you loved was buried. It seems so sad to think the two of you were separated the way you were…I think Creek had no idea you became a ghost…I think if he had known the Creek would have become a ghost with you.”

After the purple troll said this to Branch he let out a deep sigh before saying to him bravely but with a touch of sadness to his voice. “As much as I miss Creek I am glad that he is at peace.” The grey ghost faded then away without warning.

Despite his courageous words Creek could tell that Branch just wanted a little time alone to adjust to everything he had told him about the troll he had loved so strongly. The purple troll thought about the situation in which the grey troll found himself in, it had to be purple torture for Branch and this just made him want to help the ghost even more than before.

The guru had to admit that he was curious as to whether he was right and the body of the curse troll would still be exactly the same as when it had been buried. Creek knew that he only way to know for sure would be to open up the tomb and then the coffin inside it, but to do this the spiritual troll knew he needed permission from King Peppy to be able to open the tomb. The guru wasn’t sure if he could get the permission he needed from the troll king, this was because the tomb was old and rare and also because Branch had been a troll lord meaning the other troll would have been related to King Peppy. Still Creek knew that unless he spoke to King Peppy and told him the situation of the grey troll he wouldn’t know if the King would give him the permission he needed.

Quickly Creek made his way to the royal pod, when he came in the King looked up, he smiled at the purple troll and said to him. “How can I help you Creek?”

“I’m helping the grey ghost, I have discovered that he was lord Branch Silver-song and that he was cursed before he died hundreds of years ago. His tomb is the simple grey one in the furthers corner of the graveyard under the ye tree. I am hoping that you will let me open his tomb and coffin so that I can see his body in its coffin to see what condition it is in, this will help me to confirm if I am right about what I think the curse has done to him.” The guru told the old troll King.  
Peppy frowned thoughtfully for a few moments, he could understand Creek wanted to help the ghost it was in his nature, but at the same time he knew that the other trolls wouldn’t want such an old tomb disturbed unless absolutely necessary and so he said to the younger troll. “I can understand why you are asking me what you are, but I am reluctant to open that tomb. Is there some other way to find out more about the curse before we have to open his tomb?”

Creek wanting nothing more than to help Branch tried to see if he could think of anything and then gave him a nod. “I am yet to look into miss Guffin the troll who accused the troll Branch was in love with and betrothed to of cursing him.”

“Then do this first and if you can’t find out more about the curse by looking into her then we will open up the tomb.” Peppy said decisively to the younger troll.

“Yes my King.” Creek left the older troll feeling a little aggravated but at the same time unsurprised that he had been denied permission to open up the tomb at this time. The purple troll once more made his way through the troll tree going back to the archives to look for yet more information, but this time on miss Guffin and how she was involved in everything which had happened so long ago.


	4. Chapter four

Chapter four:

After looking through the archive for a while Creek eventually found information on miss Guffin, he discovered from the archive that she has been an older well respected troll, to whom all the other trolls had turned to whenever they needed advice of some kind. The archive also made reference to the fact there were several journals that this troll had written over the years, the notes in the archive made it clear they had been put into storage after her death and it appeared from the card for the journals no troll had ever read them. The purple troll quickly made his way to the part of the archive to were the card told him were the journals were being stored and carefully pulled the five journals of miss Guffin off of the shelves. Each one of them had a simple deep green leather covers on them, the purple troll couldn’t help but notice that these journals were thick and would take him a while to read. The purple troll went to the archive keeper, he looked up at Creek smiled and then said to the other troll in a cheerful voice. “Hello Creek how can I help you?”

“Hello Papyrus I wanted to check these out so I can read them.” The spiritual troll told him handing the journals across to him.

“Sure.” The archive keeper checked the journals out for him and then handed them back to the other troll saying to him cheerfully. “Happy reading.”

“Thank you.” With this said the guru took the journals and set off back to his pod, when he got home Creek took the journals over to a table, he put them on the table, and sat down looking at them. The purple troll pulled a note pad out of his hair, he placed it on the table next to the journals, Creek then carefully opened the journal which looked to be the oldest and then started to read it. The entries were quite mundane to begin with, just about trolls she was meeting for the day, important events and note on those miss Guffin was finding difficult to help with their problems. The purple troll soon noticed that this troll also recorded the births and deaths of the other trolls in her journals.

By the time he had finished reading this journal it was late, the purple troll closed this book, he got up and then went to bed for the night. The next day once Creek was finished getting ready for the day ahead he set to work on the second journal, the guru soon found that Branch’s birth and Creek’s were both entered in this second journal and other than this the entries were pretty much the same as the first one. Creek put this journal to one side, he was starting to think that maybe he wasn’t going to find anything here other than a troll who had wanted to help other trolls in the best way she could. The purple troll wondered if maybe he had been wrong and the Creek from so many years ago had actually cursed Branch to be as he was now.

The purple troll let out a deep sigh he felt really confused by all of this, the guru decided that he needed to get out the pod for a little while, so Creek got up, then made his way out of the pod and went into the troll tree. The guru walked around for some time, then found himself at Branch’s tomb, Creek frowned with bewilderment he couldn’t even remember walking into the graveyard. The eyes of the guru fell on the willow, white lily and yellow tulip on the top of the tomb and had an overwhelming urge to sweep them off of it, he found himself hating the meaning of those flowers, yes they were tied to what had happened to Branch, but not to who he was. The purple troll spotted some wild lavender near to him, he picked some of it, Creek took the flowers off of the top of the tomb, he dropped them to one side of it and then placed the lavender on top of the tomb instead. As the spiritual troll was left wondering what it meant even as he did so, but at the same time feeling that this flower was right for him to be doing this with.

A few moments after this the guru smelt the herbal sent as he had smelt before and sure enough a few moments later Branch appeared next to him before saying to the other troll. “Lavender thank you Creek.”

The guru jumped with a little less this time than he had the first time Branch had appeared with warning next to him. “You know what it means?” The purple troll asked the other troll with shock.  
The ghost gave him a nod and then Branch said to the other troll in just as much surprise. “You don’t know what it means?”

Creek shook his head at the other troll and then said to him. “No the language of flowers has become a dead language to most trolls now, so can you tell me what it means please Branch?”

“Sure I’d be happy to tell you, lavender means returned affection.”

The purple troll frowned, he felt strangely happy to hear the other troll say this to him, he looked at the handsome ghost standing at his side floating an inch from the ground and said to him. “I had this strange feeling when I noticed the flowers on your tomb, I wanted to get rid of them and replace them with the lavender…I don’t even know why…”

The ghost troll gave him a long look and then said to the other troll. “You are very spiritual troll Creek, maybe you knew, I needed to know I wasn’t just remembered and that I was also cared about for the first time in a long time.”

Creek found himself smiling back at Branch, he felt very grateful towards the other troll for saying this to him and said to the other troll. “That makes a lot of sense…Thank you Branch. You are a very unusual ghost…I’ve never known of another troll ghost to exist for as long as you. I’ve started to look into miss Guffin as she was the one to accuse Creek of cursing you, she kept detailed journals so I hope that maybe miss Guffin will have recorded the actual words of the curse were.”

“It would be good to know what they were after so long and hopefully what the cure to my situation would be…” The grey ghost said with a touch of hope to his voice.

Hearing the small amount of hope which had entered into Branch’s voice had made Creek feel really wonderful, the purple troll and the ghost walked away well more floated and walked away from the tomb together and back into the troll tree. “I should tell you I have asked the troll King for permission to be able to open your tomb and he told me if I could find more information on the curse then he would allow me to see if I am right about what I think the curse has done to you.”

“I see…Thank you Creek for all of your help…May I call you my friend?” Branch asked him gently, with a touch of uncertainty to his voice.

“I’d like that.” Creek told him with sincerity.

“Good.” The grey troll told the other troll with a small smile.

As soon as the survivalist smiled at him the heart of the purple troll thundered in his chest and Creek felt like there were a thousand butterflies in his tummy. There was something about this troll which attracted him in a way no other troll ever had before, Creek started to realise that for the first time in his life that he might be falling in love with another troll and the fact that this troll was a ghost was rather shocking to spiritual troll. The guru held back the groan which wanted to escape him because of his realisation, of all the first loves to have Creek had never expected it to be a ghost and it left him wondering what he was going to do with these feelings he was having towards Branch. The guru was left wondering how this happened to him, as well as having the irrational urge to wanting to try to get the ghost to fall in love with him even though he knew his heart had be buried right along with his Creek.

As the purple troll thought about his feelings while they made their way through the troll tree Creek decided that he wouldn’t tell Branch he had these new romantic feelings for him, as he didn’t want to ruin the friendship which they had started to build between them or to be rejected by the other troll. They came into Creeks pod, once they were inside the purple troll gestured at the journals on the table and then said to the ghost. “Those are the journals of miss Guffin.”

“You have a lovely home Creek. It looks like you have a lot of reading to do.” Branch said to the other troll as he inspected the green leather bound journals on the table.

“It does…So far the reading has been very mundane…I still hope to find something about your situation in her journals. Branch I need to ask you this, what will you do if Creek really did curse you?” As he asked this question Creek the purple troll met the gaze of the ghost.

Branch looked back at him in silence for a few moments and then answered the question. “I would be very upset to hear this news because I loved him with all of my heart…But I have hope that he wasn’t the one to hurt me by cursing me…You look a lot like my Creek…Seeing you reminds me of what I felt for him and what I lost…I’ll admit it’s painful for me…There have been times I wish I could love again because I wonder if it would help me to move on from this existence into the next one.” As he admitted this the grey ghost looked at the troll standing next to him, Branch had to admit that becoming friends with this Creek had been easy for him, but at the same time he felt that there was a deeper feeling under this which unnerved him slightly. “Should I leave you to read?” Branch asked trying hard to ignore the feelings which he was starting to feel for the other troll.

“No, please don’t go. Please I want to know more about you Branch.” The purple troll asked him really wanting to know more about the ghost and to prevent the grey troll leaving him just yet.

“What would you like to know?”

“How did you and Creek meet?”

Branch slowly smiled, it wasn’t a small one this time it was a full smile, as soon as the spiritual troll saw this smile it made him feel warm inside. “I and Creek knew each other in passing, we met properly at the party to celebrate the coming of age of princess Pearl, she is King Peppy’s great grandmother several generations back and my aunt. Creek surprised me by asking me to dance, so we danced together, then after that we started talking, we found we had a lot in common and our romantic relationship grew from there.”

Creek found himself smiling back at the grey troll, then he noticed something and let out a gasp before he said to him. “Branch you’re getting some of your colours back again.”

The grey ghost looked down, his toes and fingers had turned teal blue, this surprised him a great deal but thrilled him at the same time. “Thinking about how I met Creek made me happy…”

“You’re happiness effects your grey state…! Which means it has some effect on the curse.” Creek said with excitement, he went to the table and wrote this down with his other notes. “Sorry I had to write that down I didn’t want to forget it.”

“You really are very determined to help me aren’t you?” The ghost said floating over to the table in the pod, in order to look down at all the notes written in the notepad by the other troll. “Well at least you know that I didn’t pass on because of the curse and because of my love for Creek…You also know that miss Guffin was an advisor to all the trolls.”

“I still wish I knew more already, you deserve to be free after two hundred years…You’ve suffered quiet enough Branch and you should be able to be with your Creek at last.” As he said this though it gave the purple troll pain to say the words he meant them.

“Thank you Creek.” The ghost said gratefully to him, it felt good to have the help of this troll, at the same time though Branch could sense something familiar about the spirit of Creek and for a moment the ghost couldn’t help but think this troll was his Creek. Branch frowned, he couldn’t help but think that it could be possible that the purple troll standing in front of him could be his Creek reborn and it was a thought which had him looking at the guru in a new light this flustered the ghost and he said quickly to the other troll. “I should go and let you carry on reading.”

“Yes I should read more of her journals, hopefully I can find something which will help you.” After Creek said this the ghost faded away, the herbal smell which always came with the ghost also vanished. The spiritual troll went over to the table, he picked up the third of the journals, sat down at the table with the notepad close at hand and started to read the third of miss Guffins journals.


	5. Chapter five

Chapter five:

The spiritual troll slowly started to make his way through the third journal, it was here that he began to noticed something, around the time that Branch became thirteen years old the tone of the entries about him changed and they became more romantic in nature commenting on things such as the handsome colours of the young troll. Slowly the guru lowered the journal he had been reading, a sick feeling was rising inside Creek, he’d never considered this as a possibility when he had begun to look into miss Guffin. The purple troll didn’t know if he should continue to read or not, but at the same time Creek felt sure that the only way he could discover miss Guffin did fall in love with Branch and if this would have given her a reason to want Creek out of the picture then he would have to read on.

Gulping with fear the spiritual troll, turned his gaze back to the journal and then started to read again, only to put the book down a short while later his eyes wide with shock. Miss Guffin had fallen in love with Branch, she had started to make overtones towards the younger troll when he had been very young, something which made the skin of the spiritual troll crawl. Creek was glad to read from her entries that Branch had been apparently totally unaware of her actions and interest towards him. The purple troll took a deep breath, he started to read once more, it became clear from the entries that miss Guffin was extremely upset and angry when Branch, had noticed Creek and started to peruse a romantic relationship with him. The journal entries after this spoke about the growing relationship between Creek and Branch, as well as all the ways in which miss Guffin tried to sabotage their relationship, and that each one of her attempts met with failure. The guru couldn’t also help but notice that this older troll’s anger and frustration towards both Creek and Branch was also growing and the purple troll was starting to have a terrible feeling that he was reading the journals of the troll who really cursed Branch in order to separate him and Creek forever.

Sure enough as he read on Guffin became more and more desperate to get between the two male trolls in order to make Branch hers, this desperation in the female troll had grown after Branch had proposed to Creek and he had accepted the blue trolls proposal. When nothing she did worked the older troll had turned to an old book of magic to try to find a way to make Branch hers, but even this had failed because the blue troll and purple troll had been truly in love. The older troll now very desperate had turned to dark magic, she had found a powerful curse, the words of it sent a chill up the spine of the guru. Death like you shall appear to be, but you shall not be dead, your spirit shall be severed from your body once it is in a tomb and you shall wander ever more as a ghost as your spirit shall never be able to enter back into the tomb to return to your body. She also wrote down that she would make sure that Creek was sent to prison for the rest of his life for cursing Branch, miss Guffin also planned to use a spell on him which would prevent Creek from being able to prove his innocence and she wanted to do this to Creek in order to make sure they would never be able to be together ever again.

Creek quickly wrote the curse down, the purple troll then turned his attention back to the journals hoping that if miss Guffin had recorded the curse she had used on Branch then she would have also recorded the cure. Sure enough this older troll had written down the cure, which was the return of Branch’s colours, as well as this an act of true love and an act of compassion had to be performed by the ghost. The purple troll wrote this cure down, he lowered this third journal, then sat quietly thinking back over what he had just read. He knew that miss Guffin was guilty of cursing Branch, Creek had been unjustly accused and imprisoned for it, the spiritual troll felt a wave of sadness and compassion for these two trolls. They had been put through so much by a troll who had been selfish and fixated on forcing Branch to be hers even though it was clear he never would be.

Creek knew from his earlier encounter with Branch that retuning his colours required hope and happiness, an act of true love and one of compassion, these could be almost anything, but at least now the guru knew how he could help the grey ghost find peace at last. As much as Creek didn’t want to lose the troll he had come to love, he was determined that he wasn’t going to be like miss Guffin and try to keep the other troll to himself and deny him the peace which the ghost deserved after such a long time. The guru let out a deep sigh, he’d never known that being in love with another troll could be so painful or confusing, Creek wondered if he should confess he loved Branch or not, he knew he might never get the chance to do so once the grey ghost found out he could free himself and see his Creek once more, but at the same time he was terrified that saying he loved Branch might make him stay here when he didn’t want to. The purple troll decided with a heavy heart that he wouldn’t tell the ghost that he loved him and he would let the ghost move on.

The spiritual troll put the third journal to one side on the table, the guru got up, he started to pace around his pod trying to decide what he was going to do with the information he now had. After spending time thinking Creek decided that the first thing he needed to do was tell Branch that his Creek had been innocent of cursing him and who the really culprit was. With this decided the guru reached up, he touched the ghost tear and then said. “Branch please come to me.”

The herbal sent filled the air, then a few moments later the grey ghost appeared floating in front of him and said to the other male troll. “Hello Creek, what is it?”

Creek took a deep breath and then told the other troll of what he had found in the journals of the older troll. “I have some good news for you, Creek didn’t curse you Branch…Miss Guffin was the troll who did.”

Branch looked at the other troll with wide eyes, he could hardly believe what Creek was telling him, but he knew that this troll wouldn’t lie to me, and so he said in a soft shocked voice, even as more blue colour started to filled his skin and a darker blue started to colour his black hair. “Miss Guffin cursed me and Creek was innocent…! I’m so glad to know that the one I loved never hurt me, but I don’t understand why…Why did she curse me?” The grey ghost asked him his voice full of the shock and anger he was feeling at the time.

The spiritual troll couldn’t help feel some trepidation entering him as he answered this question from the other male troll. “This isn’t the easiest thing for me to tell you…Miss Guffin…She was in love with you, she wanted you for herself, when miss Guffin realised that you loved Creek truly and she could never have you she cursed you to prevent the two of you from ever being together…I’m so sorry Branch.” Creek wished he could give the ghost a hug, but he knew that he couldn’t and this pained the spiritual troll a great deal especially as he watched the expression of pain which went over the face of the ghost.

After a few moments of shocked silence the ghost burst out with. “She was in love with me that’s just…Disgusting! Miss Guffin was as old as Peppy is now when I was your age!” Branch shuddered unable to conceal just how horrible he found the idea of this much older troll being in love with him made him feel. After taking a few moments drew himself together after this terrible shock Branch then spoke to Creek once more saying. “I’m so glad to know that Creek is innocent though…Did…Did the journals say what the curse was?”

The spiritual troll gave him a nod and then said to the ghostly troll. “Yes, she did write it down…You were cursed to look dead, then once you were buried your spirit was separated from your body, doomed to wander as a ghost and never be able to go back to your body.” 

As Creek finished speaking Branch let out a sad sigh and the blue which had been colouring his skin came to a halt and he said in an upset tone of voice. “So I’m stuck like this…”

Quickly the spiritual troll shook his head and said to the ghost. “No you are not stuck as a ghost, you see miss Guffin also wrote down the cure to your curse, which is as follows, your colours need to come back and you need to perform an act of true love and compassion in order to be free.”

The eyes of the grey ghost had gone wide as Creek told him the cure to his long time state as a ghost, he floated there staring at Creek in surprise and shock for a good long while, the ghost felt both happy and sad at the same time after hearing all of this. Wanting to break the curse he had been under for so long, the ghost focused on the happier feelings which Creek had discovery had woken up inside him and watched colour wash through him. The ghost had to admit being blue once more made him feel wonderful, he had missed seeing his colours and it gave him hope that he could break the curse on him completely. “An act of true love and an act of compassion…Both of those things are possible for me to achieve, thank you Creek you have given me hope that I can find peace at last.”

“I am glad I have been able to help you Branch, hopefully you can perform both of these acts and then you’ll be free to move on and find Creek in the afterlife.” Creek said to him even as he felt like his heart was being stabbed by something very sharp, he didn’t want Branch to leave him ever, but he knew the ghost had to.

The now blue ghost slowly moved closer to the purple troll, he reached forwards and then the ghost touched his cheek. This action and the fact he could actually feel his hand caused Creek to give a startled gasp, a ghost had never touched him before now, it was soft like a feather stroking over his cheek. The purple troll’s grey blue gaze came to meet the bright teal blue eyes of the blue troll ghost, who was looking back at him with such seriousness in his eyes that it instantly caught all of Creek’s attention. “You…After seeing Creek’s willow tree and feeling his energy once more after such a long time, I know now that you have his spirit, his soul. You are my Creek reborn I am sure of this and as I will admit that I love you as I loved him.” After the ghost said this bright blue light sprung forward from him filling the air around him and rendering him brilliantly handsome.

When the ghost said this Creek stared at him with wide eyes, before the spiritual troll could say a word to him black clouds rolled into the room, they shaped into the ghost of a female troll with dark but somehow glowing eyes. “NO! I will not let you be free! I will not let you break the curse and be with him you should have been mine!” The guru knew without doubt this had to be the dark spirit of miss Guffin, she shaped dark energy into an arrow aiming it for Creek. It was clear to the purple troll that she was intending to harm him and the guru shot to his feet as she aimed the arrow at him looking for a place to hide from it.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Branch yelled at the dark ghost.

His voice drew the attention of the evil troll ghost, she turned and glared at him. “He will die! I will not let the two of you ever be together! No matter what it takes!”

Quickly the blue ghost stood between her and Creek, he shook his head at her and said in a strong compassionate voice. “No Alicia…No more hate, I forgive you for it all! We all deserve to be free!” When Branch said this a huge wave of bright blue light washed out of him, it caught hold of the dark ghost which howled and vanished into nothing. At the same time large blue feathered wings opened out on the back of the ghost, he continued to glow and seeing this Creek knew that Branch was now free of his curse. The now winged spirit pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead, then said very softly to the other male troll with sadness in his voice. “Thank you for everything. I love you. Good bye Creek…” After he said this the winged troll vanished into nothing, leaving only the fading herbal scent and one feather behind which floated down towards the floor of the pod.

The guru grabbed it, held the feather close to him, Creek broke down into tears and screamed in what he knew somehow was an echo of the past when he had lost Branch before. “BRANCH!”


	6. Chapter six

Chapter six:

The friends of the purple troll who called themselves the snack pack were extremely worried about Creek, he had not been the same since the grey ghost had left them. After much persuasion on their part the guru had reluctantly told his friends all of what had happened to the other troll as well as the fact he had been fallen in love with now free ghost. The purple troll wasn’t himself any more, he was quiet and withdrawn, Creek hadn’t turned grey but his friends felt this was down to the fact they were all here supporting him after losing the only troll he had ever loved. Around Creeks neck on the purple, blue and silver cord was the ghost tear and the beautiful blue feather which Branch had left behind, the spiritual troll always wore this necklace as a memento of the other troll. The purple troll would walk to the tomb of the one he loved every day, he would stand there for hours and talk to the other troll as if he was right there with him. The guru had insisted that now the ghost of the troll was free that the flowers which were placed onto his tomb were changed to willow from Creek’s tree, white roses, red roses and lavender.

Slowly but surely as time passed and the purple troll began to live his life again, but he missed Branch every day, his heart ached in a way which it had never ached before and Creek felt sure he was never going to love any troll in the way he had loved Branch. The guru knew his friends were worried about him, he did his best to make them worry less by joining in with all the songs, dances and parties around the troll tree but he wasn’t really as happy as he pretended to be around the snack pack. Creek constantly felt as though part of him were missing, he still continued to help other ghosts or trolls having problems with bad ghosts, but even this didn’t bring him the same joy as it used to.

Whenever night came to the troll tree Creek would find himself dreaming about Branch, sometimes the dreams were of the here and now and the all to brief time they had spent together, but other times the purple troll would find himself dreaming of the past life they had shared together. These dreams both tortured Creek and at the same time made the guru realise that the blue ghost had been right he was the reincarnation of his Creek. This knowledge made the spiritual troll feel even sadder than before, because he knew that miss Guffin had won, she had made sure that they were separated once more and that they might always be so now. This thought made the guru feel very sad, he wanted to give in sometimes to all of these darker feelings but Creek grimly held onto hope and happiness because he knew that both his friends and Branch wouldn’t want him to be grey.

It was the night of the full moon three months after Branch had left him, Creek as he always was on these nights was in the graveyard standing at the bottom of the other troll’s tomb, he had brought with him a branch from the willow tree of his previous incarnation, lavender, red and white roses. He placed the willow branch onto the top of the tomb and said softly and sadly. “Willow not for being forsaken but for mourning of my passed self for you.” He then placed the lavender, red and white roses onto the tomb and then spoke again. “Lavender for returned affection, red and white roses for true love, which I know I will always feel for you…I love you Branch…With all of my heart and soul. I know it’s selfish of me after you spent so long being trapped as a ghost but I wish you were here with me.”

Creek let out a deep sigh, he sat down with his back against the tomb, the guru pulled his legs up against his chest, rested his head against his knees, then the spiritual troll closed his eyes for a few moments trying to keep himself together and when the purple troll opened his eyes again they widened at the sight before him. As coming towards him through the graveyard were lots of troll ghosts and spirits, all of them were ghosts he recognised as they were all of those he had helped, from the young to the old and female to male they were all there. They gathered around him and the tomb, then the very first ghost who Creek had ever helped stepped forwards, she was a young female troll with wings marking her as a spirit which had passed on. “We are here to give you a gift Creek…A thank you for helping each of us.”

Before the purple troll could say a word to her the young troll reached out and placed her hand onto Branch’s tomb, she held her hand out to the next troll, and soon they were standing hand in hand forming a clock wise spiral in towards Branch’s tomb. The one by one the troll ghosts started to glow with white light starting with the very last ghost Creek had helped and heading in towards the tomb. When this light reached the tomb it also lit up with white light, then a beam of blue light from the tomb shot up into the sky drawing all the other trolls from the tree to the graveyard to see what was happening. They all watched in awe as slowly an orb of blue light made its way down the beam of light when it reached the top of the tomb there was a large flash of blue light which was so bright it caused the spiritual troll and all of the others to close his eyes and then when Creek opened his eyes again floating just above the grass in front of him was Branch. The blue troll had his wings still, he was also still transparent, his eyes were closed and then the ghosts spoke as one. “For all the selfless aid this one named Creek has rendered to us without expectation of reward we return to him and to life the one he loves truly.”

Slowly the blue troll went from being transparent to solid, his feet touched down onto the grass which actually indented under him for the first time, then Branch’s eyes snapped open and the still winged blue troll took a first deep breath. As he noticed Creek sitting on the grass at the end of his tomb in front of him with tear filled grey blue eyes, Branch’s bright teal blue eyes went wide and he looked down at himself. The blue troll was confused, he couldn’t believe he was alive and back with Creek, but it felt wonderful to be able to see the other troll again and to have the chance to live his life with the one he loved.

Creek felt as overwhelmed at the sight of the blue troll standing before him and apparently alive once more, a strangled sob left the guru, he quickly pushed himself up onto his feet, he half staggered and ran the few steps to Branch. The purple troll threw his arms around the winged troll, he felt a huge amount of relief as he felt himself hit the solid form of Branch and then felt the other troll’s arms close around him in a warm embrace. “I’m here Creek I’m here.” The blue troll said trying to reassure the troll he loved.

“Branch!” Creek wailed as he wept hard into the chest of Branch.

The blue troll felt the legs of the guru give out, he didn’t think twice before he swept Creek up into his arms and held the spiritual troll close to him as he said to the other ghostly trolls. “Thank you, all of you.”

The young ghost which Creek had first helped smiled at him and said to Branch. “You are welcome. Creek deserved our help and to be happy. For that to be possible he needed you to be returned to him. We have one more gift for you both.”

“Another gift? What is it?” Branch asked her with both confusion and concern.

The young troll smiled at the two truly in love trolls and said. “Miss Guffin will not come back to harm ether of you, your souls are now bound together and will never be parted.”

“Thank you all of you.” The blue winged troll said gratefully, he looked over his shoulder at the wings and then back to the younger troll before asking. “Are these wings permanent?”

“Yes they are, you will also pass them on to your heirs.” After she said this the ghosts faded away into nothing.

Branch looked down at the purple troll in his arms, the spiritual troll was looking back up at him with wide wonder and love filled grey blue eyes. “You’re really here with me, aren’t you? I’m not dreaming again am I?” Creek asked him the fear that he might wake up and find he had been dreaming again was clear in the voice of the purple troll.

“Your not dreaming love. I really am here with you.” Branch told him bringing the other troll close to him, sharing his warmth of his now once more living form with him. Creek nuzzled close he loved feeling the other trolls solid form, his warmth was reassuring as to was the sound of his heart beat next to his ear.

The blue troll turned intending to take Creek back to the troll tree only to find all of the trolls of the troll tree standing there looked at them both with awe, slowly King Peppy stepped forwards and said softly. “Welcome back to us lord Branch Silver-song.”

“Thank you King Peppy Bright-tree, I hope you will not mind if I take the one I love home, I think he needs rest after the shock he has received tonight.” Branch said to the King politely but firmly.

“Of course I do not mind.” Peppy assured him understanding the fact that the blue troll wanted to take care of the troll he loved.

The blue winged troll carefully carried Creek back to his pod, he very much enjoyed holding the other troll in his arms if felt like perfection to him, Branch carried the one he loved through the pod, he gently lay the purple troll in his bed and then asked him softly. “May I lay beside you?”

“I would like that.” As Creek said this he held his arms out towards the one he loved desiring with all his heart to feel him close to him once more.

Smiling joyfully Branch got into the bed laying alongside the spiritual troll, he went into the arms of the other troll and held Creek close to him happy to be with him at long last. “I love you Creek…I’m so glad to be back here with you again and to live my life with you.”

“I can hardly believe you are here with me my love…You have such wonderful wings…I’ll admit I’m half afraid I’m going to wake up and find all of this is nothing more than a dream.” Creek confessed with fear clear in his voice and in the way he shook in the arms of the other troll.

The blue troll smiled at him, he gently brought his lips to those of the purple troll, the grey blue eyes of Creek went wide, he felt so wonderfully happy inside as Branch kissed him, the guru leant into the kiss and started to return it. With a happy sigh the blue troll deepened the kiss and running his fingers into the two tones hair of the one he loved. Creek murmured with delight returning the kiss Branch was giving him with just as much passion and when they eventually broke the kiss both trolls were breathing hard, they shared a smile and then Branch said in a gentle voice. “Go to sleep Creek my love I promise I will be right here when morning comes.”

Creek gave the troll he loved a nod of understanding, the guru closed his eyes, he let out a deep contented sigh, feeling as happy and content as he did it didn’t surprise the blue troll in the slightest when he quickly fell asleep in his arms. Branch pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead, he carefully pulled the bed covers over them both, closed his wings around them and then fell into a peaceful sleep beside Creek. 

When the purple troll woke up the next morning it took him a moment to realise he wasn’t alone in the bed, when this realisation hit Creek’s grey blue eyes popped open and hope raced through the purple troll. That hope inside him grew in epic proportions when the spiritual troll found blue feathers above him and felt arms around him. The guru gasped, he rolled over to find Branch sleeping behind him, his wings were around them, unable to resist the sweet temptation they presented to him Creek reached out and stroked his hands over the wings they were so soft. Slowly the bright teal blue eyes of the winged troll opened, he smiled at Creek as he ran his fingers over his wings and said softly. “I’m glad to see you like my two additions.”

The spiritual troll gave him a nod and then said in an awed voice. “There wonderful…I can’t believe they are going to be passed on to your heirs…”

Branch gave the guru a cheeky smile and then said to him. “Not my heirs, our heirs. Creek, because if you think I am going to have pods with any other troll you are very much mistaken.”

Creek couldn’t help the chuckle which escaped him. “Pods huh? I think a wedding fist might be a good plan lord Branch Silver-song.”

The blue troll laughed for the first time, a sound which the purple troll loved instantly and he wanted to hear all over again. “Oh Creek I love you.” Branch said softly, before he pulled out of his deep blue hair two golden rings and then spoke to the other troll once more. “I’ve had these two rings for two hundred years I think it’s high time they were used don’t you?”

As the guru looked at them with wide eyes, unable to find the words to ask this simple but powerful question the guru simply gave the one he loved a nod and then Creek held his left hand out towards Branch. The winged troll gently slipped the gold band onto his finger, then met the grey blue gaze of the one he loved and held out the other ring to him. Creek’s hand sook slightly as he accepted the gold band from Branch, then slipped it onto his finger, as he did this deep inside him it felt like something he had been waiting to do for a very long time had just been completed. This caused a wave of warmth and satisfaction to go through Creek, he let out a happy sigh and then he said softly to Branch. “At long last.”

The blue troll smiled at him as he said. “Now that’s a sentiment I will agree with.” This caused a chuckle to leave Creek the smile on the face of Branch grew, he was glad to see the other troll so happy and he asked the other troll gently. “When would you like to get married Creek?”  
“As soon as possible.” The purple troll admitted with a wide cheeky smile for the other troll.  
“That sounds wonderful to me.” Branch said in agreement, before he kissed Creek tenderly on the lips.

The guru returned the kiss more than happy to get lost in kissing the one he loved, the purple troll didn’t fight as Branch pressed him down to the bed and flared his wings out behind him, instead Creek smiled up at him and said softly. “My handsome angel.” The purple troll told him, before threading his fingers into the hair of the blue troll, then drawing his head down and kissing him hard.

 

It had taken some time for Branch to get used to his new wings, he had eventually learnt how to balance with them, how to open them and close them back down so he could get through doorways without hurting his wings. The more time the blue troll spent using his wings the stronger they became, until eventually he was flying quickly around the troll tree and he could even carry Creek with him when he flew. Branch however had not been the only one who had needed time to get used to his wings the rest of the tribe had also taken a while to become used to seeing a troll with them, but they had done so and now none of the other trolls really thought it was odd to see another troll with wings. The very first time that Creek and the other trolls heard Branch sing, they were amazed by the beauty of his voice and the guru had to admit that hearing him sing had made him fall a little more in love with him than he had been before. The purple troll loved to ask Branch to sing for him, then winged troll in his turn took great delight in singing for him whenever Creek asked it of him.

As for Creek and Branch’s relationship it was very clear to the whole tribe that they were very much in love and they after what they had been through that the two male trolls had no wish to be parted again, so it was there for of no surprise to any of the other trolls of the troll tree when they announced their intention to marry as soon as they could. The two trolls would be married only a month and a half later in a small, simple, but intimate wedding performed by King Peppy, the only witnesses to their joining were the members of the snack pack. When the time had come Creek and Branch had exchanged heartfelt vows full of the knowledge that they would spend all of time together. After they married the two male trolls slowly built a home and a life together, one which was full of hope, love and happiness. 

It was a year since Branch had married Creek, today he was sitting watching the spiritual troll as he sat on the floor of their pod meditating, the one he loved looked utterly at peace and it was a sight which as it always did filled him with joy, but especially at this time as the purple troll’s tummy was very heavily swollen with the pod of their first child which was growing inside him. The winged troll knew that the pod and Creek were both well, but this didn’t stop him from watching over the one he loved in case anything happened and Creek needed a healer straight away.

When Creek finished his meditation, he opened his eyes the guru quickly noticed that Branch was sitting on the sofa watching over him as he always did, the spiritual troll had to admit he loved the way that his husband uncomplainingly protected him and watched over him whenever and wherever he chose to meditate. The purple troll smiled lovingly at the blue troll, the winged troll smiled back at him opening out his wings slightly which Creek knew was an unconscious expression of happiness. 

“Do you feel ready to go to the healer and have the pod removed now my beloved?” Branch asked Creek his voice gentle and full of love.

“I am love.” The spiritual troll told Branch with a nod of the head, the blue troll got up from the sofa, he walked across the pod to where Creek was sitting and Branch helped his husband to stand back up. The guru leant on the one he loved took a few moments to catch his breath, then when he felt ready to leave their home to go to the healers Creek gave Branch a nod, the blue troll gave him a nod back, so with the spiritual troll leaning on the winged troll slightly, they made their way slowly side by side to the healer’s pod and then into the room which had been put aside for them there.

Branch helped Creek to get onto the bed in the room, he then made sure the one he loved was comfortable in the bed before settling on the chair by the bedside. A few moments later the healer came into the room, the light purple and bright yellow haired female troll smiled at the couple and said softly to Creek. “Hello Creek and Branch. Now this will be perfectly painless and over in a few moments, but I suggest you look at Branch and not at me Creek alright?”

“Yes healer Reed that’s fine.” The purple troll told her before he turned his head, to gaze at the one he loved, Branch moved so that one of his wings was blocking the view of what the healer was doing to the purple troll from both of them.

Creek spoke to the one he loved determined to keep his mind off of what was happening. “I wonder if we are going to have a boy or a girl?”

“I really don’t mind as long as the child is healthy. Do you have any names in mind love?” Branch asked happy to help Creek to keep his focus on him.

“I’ll admit I hadn’t thought of any…I’m hoping that we can think of one together when we see our child for the first time.” The spiritual troll confessed to the other troll with a rueful smile appearing on his face as he admitted this.

Branch let out a chuckle, before saying to his husband. “I rather like that idea actually…It’s going to be interesting to teach our child how to use its wings.”

This time Creek chuckled and then asked with laughter in his voice. “Can you imagine it our child flying around the pod while we try to catch it?”

The blue troll laughed properly this time, it took him a few moments to stop laughing and when he had done so at last, Branch says to Creek. “We are certainly going to have quite an interesting time that is for sure beloved.”

“Yes, but we have each other, I think that together we can cope with anything our child throws at us.” After Creek said this the blue troll smiled at him widely and pressed a kiss to his forehead.  
A few moments after this Reed said to the two male trolls. “It’s done, you can both look now.”

When the healer said this Branch moved his wing back, in the arms of the light purple troll was a bright purple and blue pod the petals of which ended in tips which looked just like feathers. The healer carefully placed the pod into Creeks arms, the two male trolls watched both feeling joyful as the petals opened to show their child, she had skin which was the same shade bright purple as Creek, Branch’s royal blue hair crowned her head, her eyes were a bright sky blue and spreading from her back were two small purple feathered wings. “She’s beautiful. What shall we call her Creek?” Branch asked Creek the joy he felt at the sight of their daughter clear in his voice when he asked question.

“I would like to call her Hope.” The purple troll said to the one he loved, looking at his husband with the love he felt for the other troll clear in his eyes along with the happiness he felt at seeing their daughter for the first time.

“Hope…Yes that is a perfect name for her my love.” Branch reached out and gently stroked the hair of their daughter, he felt wonderfully content, because for the blue troll, being alive once more living his life, seeing his daughter for the first time and being with Creek was a perfect moment as far as he was concerned. Branch was extremely glad he had been returned to life, his heart was filled with the kind of joy he had never thought he would be able to feel ever again and the blue troll hoped he would never lose this feeling ever again.


End file.
